What other camera system gives you beautiful bokeh, weather-resistance, and autofocus in such a small size? Honestly, none! And that’s why OM System lenses with beautiful bokeh are incredibly appealing. There are a bunch of f1.2 lens options you’ll want to bring around on your camera each and every day. Combine this with things like the Grainy Black and White filter, and you’ll get photos you’ll be ecstatic with. We’ve tested these lenses and we can say without a doubt that these are OM System lenses with the bokeh every photographer will want.
If you’re a professional photographer who usually shoots portraits, you might be eyeing the OM System lenses with gorgeous bokeh along with lighting gear. But if you’re a street photographer, you might also want to take a look at what these lenses offer. Lenses like this can also do a whole lot when shooting astrophotography, food, night photography, landscapes, etc. Try combining these lenses with a feature like the Live ND computational photography option to get photos you’ll want to stare at over and over again.
Without further adieu, dive into our curated list of the best OM System lenses with beautiful bokeh that’s bound to make photographers drool.
The Phoblographer’s various product round-up features are done in-house. Our philosophy is simple: you wouldn’t get a Wagyu beef steak review from a lifelong vegetarian. And you wouldn’t get photography advice from someone who doesn’t touch the product. We only recommend gear we’ve fully reviewed. If you’re wondering why your favorite product didn’t make the cut, there’s a chance it’s on another list. If we haven’t reviewed it, we won’t recommend it. This method keeps our lists packed with industry-leading knowledge. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
How We Selected the Best OM System Lenses with Beautiful Bokeh
Here’s some insight into how to use this roundup of the best OM System lenses with beautiful bokeh:
- Our Editorial Policies don’t allow us to speak about products we haven’t tried. Lucky for you, The Phoblographer has done real-world reviews of most lenses on the web! In fact, all the product and sample images were shot by us. While this piece is done in part of a sponsorship with OM SYSTEM, they’re well aware of our hardened, transparent stances on things.
- When considering the best OM System lenses with beautiful bokeh, know that if it says “PRO” in the name, it’s their highest-end option. And luckily, they’re not beyond the budget of most people into photography.
- Zuiko is the name OM SYSTEM (and Olympus before them) chose for their lens lineup. It means “Light of the Gods.” Just a cool bit of history we thought you should know!
- The OM System lenses with beautiful bokeh on this list have weather resistance. Notice how we’re not saying “weather sealing.” Barely any products out there are weather sealed, but resistant to the weather. If you’re picking up a PRO lens, know it’s boasting weather resistance. Also, know this doesn’t only help with durability, but it keeps your camera’s sensor pretty clean too. As it is, OM System has great vibration technology that keeps dust off the sensor as best as it can.
- This is the Micro Four Thirds system. So, when you’re considering focal lengths, you have to multiply them by two. This means a 14mm lens is actually 28mm in traditional photography speak. It makes for excellent photography of wildlife and for getting more of a subject in focus.
- There’s a lot to take into consideration when it comes to editing portraits. You need to worry about color grading, skin smoothing, and so much more. In this case, the staff here recommend working with Capture One to get the best colors.
- All the OM System lenses with beautiful bokeh in this roundup can be used with any Micro Four Thirds camera from Olympus and OM System.
- With cameras like the OM-D E-M1 III and newer, you’ll get an enhanced autofocus system and massively improved eye AF. These will get the most out of the lenses we have selected if you’re shooting portraits. But even if you’re photographing food, your dog, or anything else, you’ll realize quickly that it’s tough to make bad photos with these lenses.
M.Zuiko 17mm F1.2 PRO
Why This Lens?
- Fast and silent AF
- Great build quality
- Good low light performance
- Excellent bokeh
- Weather sealing
What We Think
Here’s a quote from our full review:
Well, the 17mm F1.2 PRO is sharp. This may well be one of the sharpest lenses, even wide open, that we have ever had our hands on. It follows in the steps of the 25mm F1.2 PRO as being a great all around performer with good bokeh and image quality traits that will have Micro Four Thirds photographers droolings.
M.Zuiko 25mm F1.2 PRO
Why This Lens?
- Beautiful bokeh
- Almost never need to stop the lens down
- Incredibly fast focusing abilities
- Weather sealing
- Manual focus operation is very smooth
- Pretty compact, though something a tad smaller would be nice
What We Think
Here’s a quote from our full review:
Olympus has always been known for the quality of their lenses, and Zuiko quality is every bit present in this lens’ design and image quality. One of the best things about this lens is getting the light gathering abilities of f1.2 while having the depth of field of f2.4, which is fantastic for portraits and more than good enough in most other cases. This lens is sharp, has great bokeh, shows manageable chromatic aberration, and will just astound you.
M.Zuiko 45mm F1.2 PRO
Why This Lens?
- Fast f1.2 aperture
- Excellent manual focus control
- Quick and accurate AF
- Weather resistance
- Excellent build quality
What We Think
Here’s a quote from our full review:
Image quality-wise the lens has many of the known traits of micro four thirds lenses we have come to know and love. There is no reason to shoot this lens anywhere but wide open because, even at f1.2, this lens looks wonderful and especially in portrait settings really shines. You can stop the lens down if you want to or need to for exposure reasons, but this could be the best image quality we have seen out of an f1.2 lens shot wide open.
M.Zuiko 75mm F1.8 Lens
Why This Lens?
- Wonderful all-metal body
- Rapid speeds when it comes to autofocusing
- Wonderful image quality
- Bokeh that will please anyone
- Ridiculously sharp
- True to life colors
What We Think
Here’s a quote from our full review:
There’s so much to like about the images that come from this lens, I don’t even know where to begin. First, I should mention that this isn’t a particularly easy focal length to shoot with, especially for me, as I’m primarily a street shooter and am accustomed to the 35-50mm range. 150mm equivalent is quite long, and I found it to be a great exercise in how I go about shooting. I was definitely outside of my comfort zone, but I had quite a bit of fun with it.
This piece is presented in partnership with OM System. We’ve independently and ethically reviewed all the products in this post without sponsorship. And we worked with them to recommend a few key gems to you.
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